The Shield and the Ivy
by Lana Keat
Summary: It's war. It's horrible landscapes and cries of despair. It's the dark and maybe the honest things about you, come outside, where you can't hide them and where everyone can see them. They are in the middle of nowhere in Germany. So...Why is there a small army of students camped here? British kids to start... FemHarry
1. Chapter 1

_English is not my mother tongue, so if you find mistakes please tell me._

* * *

 **The Shield and The Ivy**

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

The world in front of his eyes is a snowy landscape white and blue, with a thick fog doing fluffy swirling banks from the knees to the head. They are in the inner of a grove. Steve in the front with a whole troop of men behind him. Walking cautiously, there are a lot of lives that he is responsible for. He must use well his capacity -improved by the serum- for keep all of them alive.

In the deep of his heart, there is a hidden part of him which is scared of that.

Before the serum, no one had entrusted to -small and puny- Steve the someone else's life.

He stops and looks over his shoulder at the faces, enveloped by fog, that moves behind him. He makes a hand gesture.

He is the responsible.

His ears are picking. Takes a few more steps and stop. Adjust the grip of the shield. His head twitch. Quickly he looks and pointing towards the tree under which Dum-Dum just had passed, and throw the shield.

From above, hidden among the branches, a body fall to the ground. The shield bounces over their heads and falls into the bushes, that it crosses and in which disappears. Steve will pick it up in a minute, he still has to get the hang of the rebound, meanwhile, he exchanged a look and a gesture with the other commands.

That was the plan, except, that suddenly, he is hearing the bushes moves behind him. He also heard the hiss of vibranium be picked up and set on an arm. There are footsteps, coming.

Steve is already in defensive position, he can hear the rest of the commands prepared their guns too.

Shooting will be the last option. At this time, in this operation, the main purpose is to go undetected and the sound of a gunshot attract attention anywhere for anyone.

Melee will be.

"You are rather far from home, yank man."

For just one second Steve thought that it is Peggy who just talks back to him. But she is not Carter although their accents are the same.

The woman...the girl is tiny, malnourished, but her shoulders and back are fierce and -under a British helmet- her hair is black and so tangled up that can be possible. That hair is so far as could of the images of the painstaking hairstyles and the tight victory rolls that he had seen before, back to home, back to Peggy. He had never seen a girl so disrupted in public...or in private for the case.

She has gorgeous eyes that it's true. Her face is serious and very close to the expressions that he and the rest of Howling Commandos wear, except, that in the left half side of her face there is a crude, raw, large lightning-shaped scar.

She is wearing a worn out dirty fawn jacket and pants. In her hands, there is Steve's shield. She pass a bruised finger along the border. The shield sings for her like a cup of glass for a wet fingertip.

It is the first time Steve meet Ivy.

And he feels, suspiciously, that it is like look to an another soldier.

A few weeks after that, he feels that she is a truthful friend.

At the time of their farewell, his heart is filled.

And when everything ends, he feels sorrow, determination, and hope.

* * *

.

.

.

* * *

 **I'm trying to improve my English (although, really, my weak point is the improvised conversation), so here it is this fic. For now, it's gonna be a short fic, or shorts fics in plural because I'm thinking in a large term...**

 **Of course, I will post here this fic in Castillian, and the two versions in AO3...but it going to wait until the weekend because tomorrow I will have to explain two projects in class and one of them I really really should finish it damn right now...**

 **Procrastination you are a bad friend...**


	2. Chapter 2

_English is not my mother tongue, so if you find mistakes please tell me._

* * *

 **The Shield and The Ivy**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

Her name was Ivy Potter. She introduced herself as she returns the shield back to Steve, who can not avoid noticed that she made sure that she was at arm's length. That made him frown, but he had to put the thing apart because she went on and tell them that an allied military camp was set no far away.

She had hovered her eyes all over the soldiers and invited them in.

The Howling Commandos were skeptics. When they were in the main base, nobody told them about a camp in this zone. And keeping in mind their mission, the presence of an allied force it would be a useful information. The Colonel Phillips would have told them in that case.

Also, she had shown them a beatific smile. She seems very relaxed for a member of the allied force in nazi's territory.

And that scar...it did not help her to look inoffensive. Not even a little bit.

That's very suspicious indeed.

Steve makes time to give an answer by tried to see the situation from her perspective.

She is a girl in her twenties with no weapons, and they were a group of adult men strongly armed. He could not see why she is so confident unless she is sure of her own capacity to defeat them all, or she thinks that they will not hurt her.

He wants to naively suppose that her behaviour is for the last one reason, because, although with the first option she will not win -not with Steve here, no matters how competent she is- one look to her eyes and the darkness in there and Steve knows that he has to start thinking about her as genderless soldier.

On the other hand, this could be a trap. A British helmet and accent are not valid credentials.

But she returned the shield, and Steve has no doubt that she had looked the distinctive pattern, after all, she calls him Yankee, and with all the propaganda around she would recognize it. Recognize him.

And, yet, she had returned the shield. That means something, even he is not completely sure about what.

Steve look her right to the eye and make a decision. A genderless soldier reminds to himself.

"We will follow you back to this camp, miss Potter. Thank you for the offer, please let we escort you back." He says brightly smiling in opposition to his thoughts, while he raising the right arm, bent at the elbow, and move the fingers.

At the order, the Howling Commandos behind him moves forward with the guns still ready in they arms and surrounded the girl. Morita will guard her left and Gabe Jones her right. Dum Dum, Bucky, and Dernier will go first and finally, Falsworth and Steve will cover the rearguard.

It's not a coincidence that Steve is just behind her.

If this turns out to be a trap, he can kill her before she could warn the enemy about their presence. Although it would be morally difficult to kill a young woman, in that case, he would have no choice then do it. -he can't keep her alive during all the way back to the base just for interrogate her. And it would not be fair for his comrades to have to kill her just because Steve did not want to be the one who did it- and his reflexes and moves are faster than those of the rest of the humankind.

She grasps her arms while the commandos settled in their position. Dum Dum and the other two had advanced enough for being swallowed by the fog.

"Ah…" She moves in her site restless, she seems not appreciate it. She steps forward trying put some space between them, and Steve quickly follows her, preventing it.

She glances back at the corner of the eye and takes another step. Steve, and this time Falsworth, Morita, and Gabe too, follow her. She raises an eyebrow and took a diagonal step forward. They follow her moves and, once again, they are in the original position. She turns her head to give a plain look to Steve. It is his chance to raise an eyebrow. She snorts lightly like she is thinking something funny. He wants to know what.

"It's over there, yank man. Down the hill." She finally points with her thumb above her shoulder.

They start moving, and they meet with the other commandos not far away. Dernier points to them that they didn't see anything strange. Not another any questionable persons are hiding around, then. Did she come to met them, strangers, alone? She is reckless.

For the next twenty minutes, a process will be repeated.

Miss Potter will indicate a way. Bucky, Dum-Dum, and Dernier will go first, their eyes sharp.

And the others will follow them slowly.

And in all that time they didn't see any life signs along the way.

And as Dum Dum told him later, they did not even see miss Potter's footprints.

At one point they finally find any signs of civilization. It's several minutes later from the last pause, and they stop abruptly because they run into a road. In the mix of snow and mud, there are wheel tracks.

Steve look to miss Potter accusingly. She shrugs her shoulders and with no doubt, she jumps into the road, the mud splashes his boots and the bottom of her trousers. She walks to the other side of the road. Her footprints very sharp on the road.

Cover by a bush Dernier says what everyone in the Howling Commandos is thinking.

"If we do that, we can also light flares right now."

There is a chorus of growling responses. But Steve is thinking. It's not a wide road, he probably can jump from here and arrive next to miss Potter, and because the slope it's probably even easier.

He wonders…

.

.

.

Bucky has been for the last forty minutes stand and running with the knees bends in that way, that although it looks stupid, it is silent. He exchanges opinions with the soldiers about the chances. And if it's worthy. All these things about the strange lady.

Bucky wants to say no, that they should kill her right now and go on with their mission. She gives bad vibes to him. But he is terrified by his own thoughts. He wonders how much about it's the result of the mad of war or...he trembles.

Sincerely, he keeps feeling fear when he thinking about how much about him has suffered changes since he was a prisoner -in that medical table with the restrictions, oh God- in the Hydra compound.

He has to talk about it with Steve yet. He suspects that whatever changed Stevie so much, is same to the thing which now keeps changing him, but he is afraid to think that, maybe, he are closer to that red skull man than to his childhood friend.

He is so terrified that he freeze in the middle of the talk and he missed how Steve's eyes shined in that way that put him in so many fights in Brooklyn. But he snaps out and has to stopped himself to fight back when he grab him by the collar and the belt.

He is Steve reminds himself, he is Steve, a little child too brave...and stupid...and sickly.

Not an enemy, yelled in his head.

And now he is flying, no, he has being pushed away by the bastard of his best friend.

He lands on the other side of the road, the face first, and rolling to his flank. He briefly sees the girl's feets move aside, and he reaches a hand to make an effort and, with lucky, grab a root. The sudden movement makes his shoulder ache, but it faded away in the moment.

"I wonder if he has arrived well?" He listens Steve mumble.

"Punk" He whispers heartily in return, laid back on the ground while he watches the trees branches swings.

Miss Potter's face appears with the helmet, the hair and the eyes.

"Why he did that?" She questions with curiosity to him.

"Why you did that?" He response immediately in defense. She seems confused with her eyebrows showing below the helmet. "Walking through the mud, leaving your footprints for everyone to see them. You know that we are in Germany, don't you?"

She smiles a little.

"It's going to snow very soon." Hearing that, he lifts his head off the floor.

Good, -he thinks with sarcasm- it's sure that now Stevie with super-ears had listened her. He snorts. He could listen the others start to cross the road. Gabe is complaining to Steve, he wants him to release his jacket.

"And why you just did not tell us before?" He says return his attention to her while he stands up rotating his shoulder. He is angry.

"I thought you will know! The signs are very clear."

"Are you half Eskimo? And, how can you see any of the sky with all these stupid trees?"

She is now fiercely looking at him.

"I'm raised in Scotland."

"Well, I'm from Brooklyn."

"I'm from Fresno!" cheerfully intervenes Jim, patting Bucky's shoulder in comfort. Bucky moves again the shoulder, it didn't hurt anymore but he made it for keep up appearances. Well, something good has to come for th...

Bucky shakes his head. And look away.

Steve is near, his innocent face looking at him. Smiling. The Bucky's anger lows and raises at the same time. He wants to punch him. In the face. Hard.

After a short talk, they finally return with the walk. They are near according to the girl.

Again Bucky is at the top, far away from those two.

They all miss how the footprints disappear with a move of a wand.

.

.

.

"He had the stupid idea to throw all us to the other side of the road, so we not left marks on the ground." Dum Dum whisper to Bucky in the place where they are squatting. They are far from the group, looking for the edge of a crag or a coomb -he didn't know, he is not a geographer- beneath its suppose to be the camp, according to the girl.

But they only see a foggy pool. And a lot of snow, falling.

The Dum Dum's big hand it's on Bucky's back. And he feels the welcome warm that it comes from him. Dum Dum it's the favorite partner for everyone during watch duty.

"I don't see nothing." he opt to response, forcing his eyes through the binoculars.

Dum Dum nod.

"Five minutes more, and we go back."

Bucky says nothing. It is unnecessary. The question is big. In that case what they would do with the girl?

He still feeling odd things when she is near.

He doesn't know what his response would be when the time comes.

If they was in Brooklyn and she didn't scare him, Bucky knows that he will ask her to a dance, she has pretty eyes. Well he is not sure, the scar is nasty and the actual Bucky didn't care less about it, but old Bucky probably dislikes it.

But he doesn't trust her.

He didn't feel before something like that for a girl. Well, it was that time with Samantha Collins when they were children and she had made him lost his lunch. He doesn't forgive her even now. He had already given the half of it to Steve, and there was not enough food to be satisfied in that times.

But it's not the same.

He keeps waiting for her to pull out a syringe and nail it to his neck.

And then he will be again in….what was that!?

He stiff and he is sure that Dum Dum has noticed. But he is still searching because he is sure that he had seen something silver, and that means iron and it's probably a…

Oh Good Lord!

The foggy dissipates and for a moment he could see a true camp. She is not lying about that! He thinks distracted, but Bucky it's more interested in the human form that it is half hidden behind the tree where he saw a flash of iron.

And he is sure that either the British soldiers are all short, or this is a fucking kid!

The fog thickens again but he has seen enough.

.

.

.

* * *

Thank you all the ones who select "favorite" o "follow" my story.

It has been a time from I saw the movie...so maybe it is not completely right. I confused Fresno for Reno the first time I wrote this and I had to check it on youtube.

I had this wrote for a past few days, but there were a couple of things with I didn't satisfied. For example the whole thing about the expression "at arm's length". In Castilian when you say that, means that you are far of reach. And I keep the feeling that in English is opposite, that be "at arm's length" is being closer.

I get the right idea, or I have mistaken?

Well, anyway I hope you had like it.

Tell me what you think?

.

Edit: I changed the —...— for "..." , as Skendo (I get my first review!) asked. It's a bit odd for me, as every book I read has dialogues marked with —, but thinking about that I realize that all the English stories that I read here has the "" for the dialogues, and all the Spanish writers use — , so...?


End file.
